Stapeliads

Succulent asclepiads are particularly interesting to me, especially the group named stapeliads. Their flowers are miraculous. I have read somewhere: "bizarre beauty of flowers"; "Orchids of the Succulent World" is the title of Jerry Barad's home page dedicated to stapeliads. The flowers of stapeliads have one flaw only. Most of them don't have a pleasant smell. They smell of excrements and carrion. Perhaps somebody would say that they stink. I said that some years ago and my friend answered:

"Flowers don't stink, they smell unpleasantly, at most".

Stapeliads grow only in the old world. There are some representatives in Europe, too, in southern Italy and Spain. Most of them are from dry regions of south, east and north Africa, Arabian peninsula and some even from India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma) and Nepal.